Buck Fever or Bull Fever

Tillamook Born · 10-29-2003, 09:49 AM

Well, I am ashamed to tell the story of my weekend hunt. Fortunately, I saw a lot of deer, but only one legal buck. So to start off the day, it is about 7:15, just getting light, so I get out of the truck to adjust my binoculars to fit my eyes. Get those all adjusted. Then I proceed to check my scope to see if the lens are fogged up. Needless to say, I pull the scope up to look through it and I center it right on a 3 pt. buck about 80 yards away. At the time I didn't know if it was a buck or doe. Anyways, I'm stoked, heart is pounding, legs are shaking. Not just twitching, it seemed like my legs were shivering like your teeth would on a cold day. So I pull my binoc's up to see if it is a buck. Yep, confirmed buck. Pull up my rifle to take the shot. My legs would not stop shaking. Obviously throwing off my accuracy on my shot. So I drop to one knee and rest my elbow on my other knee. It seems to help a little bit. But it didn't help enough. I was shaking so bad that I couldn't get a clean shot, and I didn't want to take the chance of wounding it. So my question is what do you do to try to keep the "shakes" from ruining your shot. This was a little embarassing when telling the story. But needless to say I don't want it to happen again. Any info. would be great. One person said to try and find a tree to lean against, but where I was at, there wasn't anything to lean against. HELP.
TB

Maddie'sDaddy · 10-29-2003, 10:01 AM

I think it happens to the best of us , I had the same thing happen 2 years ago when i shot my 4x5 buck, luckily it gave me enouph time to lay down on my stomach and rest on a tree stump. So everytime i get in that situation now i will lay down and shoot given the oppertunaty. It takes those pesky old wiggly legs out of the equation,and allows for a good clean shot. :smile:

Tacklebuster · 10-29-2003, 10:07 AM

The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath. Do you spend much time in the outdoors? If not, I suggest on the off season, get a good cane and take a walk. When or if you see a buck, pretend it's hunting season, turn your cane into your favorite hunting rifle, breath and squeeze the trigger.

Hope you shake it out of your system. One other thing, have you ever shot or shot at a deer before?

Bait O' Eggs · 10-29-2003, 10:10 AM

If you dont get those feelings your describing why hunt?

Controlling those feelings are a different matter

If you could bottle and sell the adreniline rush, you could make a fortune and put the dark alley drug dealers out of business.

Tillamook Born · 10-29-2003, 10:16 AM

Well I appreciate the advice. I grew up in Tillamook hunting ducks, fishing, and recently hunting elk. I have shot two elk in my life, but this is the first time and first year that I have hunted for deer. On a weekly basis I usually spend about 15-20 hours working in the woods. So I have seen a lot of deer and elk while working. Unfortunately for me, my walking stick just doesn't take the place of a rifle. I can hold a stick dead still without any problems when not hunting. It is just something about the actual hunt, or maybe the idea that you are about to take something's life is it. Personally, I don't know what it is. The idea of dropping to the ground would have worked, but from where I was trying to shoot, it would have put me to low and some maples would have been in my line of vision.
TB

Mello-Yello · 10-29-2003, 10:39 AM

Yeah! It's a rush, huh?

About all you can do is work on "conditioning" yourself for the moment of truth. Simulate the situation in every way possible. Practice aiming from unbalanced, uncomfortable situations. Get some buddies together in the off season, and lay some money down on some good, fun competitive shooting. Setup a video camera to film you shooting. For some reason, it's hard to maintain your composure with a cam-corder on you.

The whole point is to go through this so many times that it just isn't that big of a deal anymore. You need to be able to calmly tell yourself "I've done this a hundred times, I can do it now!"

I think a lot of it has to do with how much anticipation you build prior to the opportunity.

I've drawn on animals before where I would swear they could hear my heart beating out of my chest. Other times, I'm cool as can be. Confidence plays a big role here.

When you've got the shakes, also make sure you aim at one particular hair, not just the body. This should minimize your wandering crosshairs to a smaller area.

Lastly, and this is something I've learned to do in many aspects of life that create uncomfortable situations. Smile! You can't imagine the amount of immediate stress relief this can cause. I learned it playing baseball, when stepping up to bat. The nerves were eating at me, but I found that if I smiled at the pitcher, and said to myself "This is so much fun!", it really re-directed my thoughts to the positive. And I batted very well....

Also, you might consider a shooting stick if you're shooting open country.

Old Coot · 10-29-2003, 11:04 PM

Stop thinking, go onto auto-pilot. See the target, identify the target, center the cross-hairs, flick off the safety, place the ball of your finger on the trigger, squeeze.

Don't feel bad. I watched a guy with the fever run five rounds through a bolt-action. Never fired a shot, just kept cycling the action until his whole magazine was in the mud at his feet. :blush:

Of course, none of us in camp ever reminded him of that again.

[ 10-29-2003, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Old Coot ]

Maddie'sDaddy · 10-30-2003, 04:08 PM

I tend to agree with Bait O Eggs That is the feeling that makes it worthwhile for any outdoor sport.When you can get those feelings and control them enouph to do what you went there for, there is definately no drug that can match.

Freakwater · 10-30-2003, 08:58 PM

Don't be ashamed if you didn't take the shot! I was just as excited and took the shot this year. Gut shot a moving deer at 50 yards. Told my self all year I wouldn't take that shot and I did. It fell where I shot it, but still had to walk up and finish it off. Thought it sucked. For me it takes a bit of mental preparations weeks before the hunt. I didn't take that time this year. Take the time to find a rest to make the proper shot. If you don't have time, let it go. Practice with shooting sticks if you have to take a standing shot.

Freak

dimwit · 10-31-2003, 08:11 AM

I much prefer a story of someone who got buck fever and didn't shoot over a story of someone who justs blasts away. The fact that you had the dicipline to pass on a shot that you weren't sure you could cleanly make says that you are more hunting mature than many people who have killed several animals. You'll do fine. Just relax and have fun. Don't put so much emphasis on the kill that you put too much pressure on yourself. Success isn't always measured in number of kills. Remember that more people end the season with unfilled tags than that actually kill something...and they keep coming back. When you figure out why, the buck fever will take care of itself. Besides when you kill something the season will be over and you'll have to go back to work, yardwork, honeydos, etc.

Trout Tako · 10-31-2003, 12:57 PM

TB,
Just an Idea - I would suggest checking into one of those collapsable staffs they have for fishing. They telescope out & set right up - Might make a steady place to rest you gun & get a clean shot. I think you can extend them with minimal movement.

Good Luck -

Tako

Blue Tip Spinner · 10-31-2003, 12:59 PM

i've had the shakes and i know the feeling. what i do to get around them is once i identify the animal, i never look at it's antlers or head. i concentrate only on the front shoulder and never look away. that keeps me from getting an "antler high" before and while taking the shot. it helps quite a bit. i am a bow hunter, and believe me when i say, one little twitch, and you just flat out miss. good luck and keep your chin up. almost everyone gets the shakes, so don't let it bother you, at least you had the great sense to not shoot and wound the animal. good luck, BTS

Old MAn River · 11-08-2003, 01:16 AM

I would have to admit that everybody has had some
sort of buck fever and they learned how to deal
with it. Just take your time and learn how to calm
yourself down. I have seen others that can't deal
with it and watched them say the word Bang, eject
the shell,put another shell in the chamber.The
person did this five times, I stood there shocked
and let the animal get away. I had never seen
someone get so shook up and he thought that he
actually shot the animal. Of course nobody could
let him live that down [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img] , I guess even
tough guy's get buck fever. :whazzup:

brshooter · 11-09-2003, 08:07 PM

The day I don't get a dose of buck fever is the day I will quit hunting. I have never had it to the point that it interfered with my being able to take care of business, but I love that feeling.

I did see a wierd case of buck fever when I was a youngster. I was 12 and hunting with my uncle and a friend of his. I was with my uncle and we heard his buddy shooting in the next draw. I'm not kidding, he must have shot at least a dozen times. After the shooting quit, we headed over to see what was up. There was Julius standing over a nice buck that he had shot 12 times. He was shaking his head. He had calmed down by then. He said he had never had a dose of buck fever like that. Then he showed us his rifle. His pipe was wedged down into the chamber of his bolt action rifle. He had run out of ammo and tried to load his pipe into the gun.

lablover · 11-13-2003, 03:14 PM

Take a deep breath,wait until the air is out of your lungs, just when you need to take a breath, pull the trigger, works for me every time.And always talk to yourself, It will take you out of the moment, for a second.